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'Real' Bash Street teacher revealed

Inspiration for Beano character was the comic's editor

As the Bash Street Kids' long-suffering teacher, he has been a figure of fun for generations of naughty schoolchildren.

Now the real-life inspiration for Teacher, the master terrorised each week by Bash Street School's anarchic class 2B, can finally be revealed.

The Beano's mortarboard and gown-wearing master was modelled on George Moonie, the comic's founding editor.

Leo Baxendale, the cartoonist who created the character, has revealed that Moonie not only inspired Teacher but was also the basis for Minnie the Minx's slipper-wielding father.

Baxendale said Moonie, who edited the Dundee comic between 1938 and 1959, had a "no-nonsense" schoolmaster-like demeanour and distinctive moustache. Teacher, who made his debut in 1954, still graces the DC Thomson comic strip.

"I loosely based Teacher and Minnie the Minx's dad on George Moonie," said Baxendale. "They are both, like George: tall and lean, with a moustache."